An open letter to EA ~ Estra Creed

[BigDaddyCool]

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[Kane Knight]

The reply I wrote in the thread. It's aimed at the EC guys specifically, but if you look at it without taking the "you" lines literally, I think it still rings true.

As apologists for the corporate body are quick to point out in selling out their consumer brethren, EA is a business.
It's really silly to try and shoehorn the concepts you guys do in terms of why EA is pulling advertisement stunts. It's not about showing they're relevant or dominant or whatever, and they likely don't care about setting up a shining example of gaming. They're a corporate entity, and corporate entities like shock because conventional wisdom still says it sells.
Does it? Usually not, at least not in gaming, but don't portray this as something more. Occam's Razor. Is it more likely they were adhering to a bad business model, or they deep down actually care about their place in modern society and are desperately trying to cleave to some sort of cultural relevance in the gaming market? Is it more likely that they were mocking Christians with the protests, or thought "protests=sales" and staged them because of that?
Is it more likely they took a juvenile stance to set back the market, or because even now, the gaming community is rife with teenage boys and people with the mindset of a teenage boy, and they were trying to capitalise on it? Even your point about the Dead Space 2 ad not appealing to anyone over 13 is false if you look at the responses. Even the responses on this forum, this very website where you post your content. Did it improve sales? I doubt it. Do I approve? No. Though personally, I was amused more because I wanted to do a parody using my mom to demonstrate how "Your mom won't give a shit."
You see, even after talking about the Bulletstorm=rape controversy, my mom doesn't really care about the violence in the games media or the ones I play specifically. This is a woman who bought me Doom when I was younger, not because she's negligent but because she figured it was no worse for me than the Schwarzenegger movies I saw on cable. And she was right. But I digress, I just think that would make an awesome commercial.
Hell, if you'll pardon the pun, sin sells. It doesn't even just sell to teenage boys. The Sin to Win contest contains a fantasy for a lot of adult males (And likely adult women. We market this kind of content to adults (Specifically males) all the time. We even have places like Vegas that capitalise on this. Not just because you can gamble, make it big, and pick up hookers, but the very concept that "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." And they're not alone. It's just they're the biggest example (largely because we're talking an organised city).
Maybe these are boyish fantasies, but they still appeal to adults. And not even just gamers. Look at the hedonism pushed by musicians, sports stars, or anyone else of celebrity status. Except maybe the Pope. Queen used to have "orgy tents," no video games needed. This is commonly pushed in the adult world. And maybe the problem is that we're a "manchild" culture, but that's not what the complaint was about here. It shouldn't push gaming back anywhere, because the rest of the culture is as juvenile.
EA doesn't have lofty goals here, unless you count a new loft to stash their loot. You address the bottom line, but miss how that bottom line actually impacts their decisions.
Now that I've ranted about the video, I liked the contrast between the "mission statement" EA offered and the video of Dante's Inferno and the protests and stuff. Really liked it. Powerfully drives home the point. But what was with the Army of Two clips in there? I'm trying to figure out how Ao2 relates here. It wasn't advertised controversially to my knowledge, and the most controversy it got was a single game review who for some reason thought other games dealing with current military operations were okay, but this one was JUST TOO FAR!
The suicide bombers were a little tasteless, perhaps, with one liners like "Long Live Saddam!" But I'm wondering if there was a specific relevance here.

[Kane Knight]

Also, it's episodes like this that most validate the claims that they are pretentious and on a soap box.

[Kane Knight]

BTW, is Estra Creed what Altair took to become Lara Emily?

[BigDaddyCool]

No, what you look like.

I don't know what I was thinking at the time, but it amused me as I typed it.

[Kane Knight]

I look like Lara Emily?

God, I hope not, as I'd hate to accidentally murder myself trying to rid the world of fake feminists.